Alpha Flight
Pages 13 and 14. This page which features the hero Snowbird fighting the weather controlling beast Kolomaq in whiteout conditions is the comic version of drawing a polar bear in a snowstorm. There are no images to follow, instead the text serves to carry the action both visually and narratively. Because the reader cannot see the characters, the creators of this comic had to come up with some way for the two to be distinct from one another, and had to find a way to simulate a battle between them with words alone. To distinguish between the two characters, the creators altered the shape of the text balloons, with thought bubbles and smooth lines for the hero, and jagged balloons for the villian. For the action, the words themselves became both onomatopoeic and dynamic. With KRACK, WHUD, and whist, the creators of this story enlarged certain words to represent louder noises, slanted others to create the illusion of movement towards different parts of the page, and even broke the gutter between panels in one case to show a particularly strong blow. In this comic, the text becomes the image.
Byrne, John, Michael Higgins, and Andy Yanchus
VCU Libraries, James Branch Cabell Library, Special Collections and Archives
Marvel Comics Group
1984
Famous Funnies: a Carnival of Comics
This volume is often lauded as the progenitor of the American comic book. A very important historical artifact in its own right, it contains both newspaper strips and new content bound together in the form of a book. In the context of this discussion, Famous Funnies is a particularly good example of the changes that occur between printing on one form of paper versus another. The first page of the story is printed on the back of the cover, and the second page is printed on the first interior page. The interior pages are newsprint, while the exterior cover is a thicker paper with a gloss finish, which lead to the strong visual differences between the two first pages. The first page that was printed onto the thicker gloss paper of the cover has bolder colors, as the whiter surface makes the variances in the ink easily visible. Additionally, the surface of the cover paper is less porous, so the ink has not absorbed as far into the page. This is not the case for the second page that was printed on a newsprint sheet. The ink colors here have a noticeably duller appearance, as the newsprint absorbed more of the pigment, and the darker tone of the paper dulled the image further since the lighter colors rely on the color of the paper for their appearance.
Alexander, F.O., J. P. McEvoy, J. H. Striebel, Gene Byrnes, Ham Fisher, Al Capp, Al Smith, Clare Victor Dwiggins, Pop Mormand, A. E. Hayward, John Hix, Harry J. Tuthill, Sol Hess, Wallace A. Carlson, Charles M. Payne and Frank Godwin.
VCU Libraries, James Branch Cabell Library, Special Collections and Archives
Eastern Color Printing
1933
Doctor Strange
This book is an example of a typical comic book. Measuring 6 ? x 10 ? inches, it is saddle-stitch bound and runs for 25 pages including advertisements. The two staples placed roughly three inches from the top and bottom are clearly visible on the book’s spine, and the back cover features an ad instead of information about the comic itself. In 2002 it was bound into a trade paperback with several other single issue comics, and the new book was titled Dr. Strange, A Separate Reality.
Englehart, Steve, and Frank Brunner
VCU Libraries, James Branch Cabell Library, Special Collections and Archives
Marvel Comics Group
1974, June